Blog

In a bit over three weeks, the Academy Awards will take place, sending the entire film world into frenzy yet again. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I much prefer the more quiet appeal of the Golden Globes, as well as many of their choices, year in, year out. With that said, however, I cannot pretend that the Oscars do not exist and that they are not extremely important – they are! So as a way of generating more buzz, I had a look at a couple of betting sites and compiled the four favourites for the big award. The Golden Globes went for Bohemian Rhapsody, which is one of the nominees here as well – but knowing how the two usually diverge, I would be surprised if the Queen biopic receives the best film trophy. So, in order of current likelihood, the four favourites are:

There’s quite a sharp difference in the number of nominations that Alfonso Cuaron’s film got – three for the Golden Globes, winning two for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film, and ten for the Oscars! In case it wins, it would be the first foreign language film to win the big prize since The Artist almost a decade ago. The plot casts a sociological lens over a middle-income family living in Mexico City in the early 1970s, and currently holds an impressive 96 Metascore rating.

The current second favourite only holds an aggregate of 70 Metascore, but we all know that’s no indication for major awards this year – after all, Bohemian Rhapsody won the most important Globe with a metascore of 49. Green Book was nominated for 5 Oscars and 5 Golden Globes – winning three of the latter, including Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali. Say what you may, but Peter Farrelly’s film seems well positioned to book its place in history as the year’s best – in the Academy’s humble opinion.

Funnily enough, The Favourite is currently only the third favourite for the Best Picture award, but this might be all for keeping us away from an all-too-obvious joke. It’s set in 18th century England and revolves around royalty, a subject that from time to time always seems to spark a winner! Most interestingly, Yorgos Lanthimos, our favourite absurdist director, is at the helm of the project, this time tackling a topic that seems more grounded in reality than his usual showings of Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I’m a huge fan of his, and would be delighted in case he’d manage a big win. 90 Metascore and 10 Oscar nominations, although it only won a single Globe.

Bradley Cooper’s film was the early favourite before the Globes, but it quickly slipped down the pegging order after it only managed to bag the Best Original Songs from the Hollywood Foreign Press giveaway. Holding a score of 88 on Metacritic, and nominated for 8 awards, currently it seems to just about top BlackKKlansman into fourth place, and whether or not it can really do better than at the Golden Globes remains to be seen.

As mentioned previously, BlackKKlansman comes in fifth, followed by Bohemian Rhapsody in sixth, Black Panther in seventh, and, at quite a distance, by Vice in eight. But unless there’s a major upset and Vice ends up taking the big honours home, I’m offering my top 4 listing as the final pool from which the eventual winner will be drawn.